The Gadfly As Media Critic

Charmaine Noronha is a writer for The Associated Press. Earlier this week, she filed a story with this as the lead: A 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay sobs during his questioning, holding up his wounded arms and begging for help in a video released Tuesday that provided the first glimpse of interrogations at the U.S. military prison.

Read that lead and what conclusions do you reach? That this poor teenager is being unjustly held at Guantanamo? That he's wounded and being denied treatment? That he's being brutalized? That U. S. interrogators are working him over? And how does this video provide the "first glimpse" of interrogations since it just shows the teenager complaining?

But here's a lead that would have been much more accurate: A wounded 16-year-old, accused of lobbing a grenade that killed a U. S. soldier in Afghanistan and brought back from death by military medics on the scene, begged for help while being questioned by agents of the Canadian military services.

Point 1: He's only 16, but he's accused of being a battle-seasoned soldier who killed one of ours and he's the son of a terrorist leader.

Point 2: He himself was almost killed, but our medics saved his life.

Point 3: He was being questioned by Canadians, not Americans.

UPDATE: AP subsequently revised the lead on its story and the new lead much more accurately reflects the contents of the story.

Share |